How to Shoot Long Exposures

Long exposure photography is gaining a lot of interest with
the increase in long exposure videography.It seems like every day there is a new video being passed around the
internet showcasing a city's skyline at night, morphing from still buildings to
dancing lights (Josh Owen's timelapse
of New York City is particularly enchanting).Lucky for still photographers, long exposures can capture that same
energy in one steady shot.There are
different techniques to capturing a perfect long exposure shot in the night and
in the day.Navigating and capturing the
right amount of light can be the most difficult.But with the right equipment, a lot of
patience and some know-how, you can get a quality image.(All images used in this article shot by Alex Wise, Tasmanian based
amateur photographer.)

Equipment

Unlike still quick exposure photography, there is very
little wiggle room in long exposure photography.Stabilizing the camera is crucial thus
necessitating a tripod or a tripod substitute.There are plenty of Make Your Own Tripods sites out there, some using
crutches and others using run-of-the-mill
Home Depot scraps.Or you could
spring for a really
nice tripod running you anywhere between $20 and a couple thousand
dollars.Whichever method you prefer,
you are going to need a tripod.It
eliminates camera shake, the archenemy of long exposure shots.You also need a camera that has an adjustable
shutter speed.It would be even better
if one of those speeds was BULB.The
BULB speed leaves the shutter open for as long as you depress the shutter
button.Some photographers keep away
from the shutter button entirely to keep long exposure photography a totally
hands off experience.

You can hook up a
remote to your camera; after setting your camera up on the tripod and focusing
on the subject, you can step away and remotely fire off the camera.If you don't have a BULB setting or a remote,
than play around with the shutter speeds.You don't necessarily need 30 seconds worth of exposure time.You would be surprised how little light is
needed to hit the sensor in order for a long exposure shot to turn out
correctly.Once you find the correct
combination of ISO, shutter speed and aperture, hold your breath and take the
picture.Seriously, holding your breath
means you move less.The less you touch
the camera, the less you shake the camera.Another sure fire way to get that sharpest, stillest shot possible is to
use the self-timer.For whatever reason,
people don't think of that one very often (hence it being at the end of this
paragraph) but long exposure photography is the prime time to use it.

Lengths of Exposure

There are three general lengths of exposure: short, medium
and really drawn out.Just kidding; that
last one is just called "long".Short
exposures usually only last a few seconds and are best utilized during the day.It is this length of exposure that shows blurred
movement; movement from an object
(such as being on a boat) or movement of
an object (such as being on the shore shooting a moving boat).Medium length exposures last around a minute
or less.Shooting traffic or moving
lights in the sky (not stars) is a good time to use medium length exposure
times.It is long enough to get all the
light in the shot but the light doesn't wash out or show up as super
highlighted points.Any objects that are
moving, such as cars, will show up only as streaks of light and not the cars
themselves.Long exposure times have an
indefinite end.Michael
Wesley is famous for his two year long exposures of the destruction and
rebuilding of huge skyscrapers the world wide.Now that's long exposure
photography.

If you walked outside at midday to shoot a long exposure of
a bird flying by, you might find that it is a white wash.You think to yourself: the sun is too bright
for a slow shutter speed.Wrong.The sun is bright but there are ways around that.The key is in the aperture.When you use a larger aperture, less light
hits the sensor than a smaller aperture allowing you to expose the film for
longer periods of time without washing out the shot.In the image below, the film was exposed for five
minutes at an aperture of f/9.But Alex
Wise had another trick up his sleeve.He
utilized a Neutral Density filter.ND
filters are neutrally colored filters that fit over the end of your lens.They block out a significant amount of light
in measurements of one stop to thirteen stops; each increase in stop doubles
the amount of light blocked thus doubling the amount of time you can expose the
film.For a more in depth look into ND
filters, check out Steve's explanation here.

If you didn't go out and buy a tripod for daytime exposure,
you are going to need to now for nighttime exposure.Your camera is so sensitive to every light
source but equally sensitive to when the camera moves.One hiccup, one sneeze or one deep breath
while holding the camera will ruin everything.Besides, you don't want to hold the camera for twenty-seven minutes just
to get one shot.When choosing the
settings on your camera for a night shot, spend some time experimenting.From the start, you will need a low ISO in
order to get the sharpest image with the least amount of noise to distract from
the image.However, if your camera only
allows for a few seconds of exposure time, the ISO will need to be bumped up in
order to compensate for the small amount of light exposure.Also set the focus to All or Infinite.During the day it is fine to pinpoint one
object to focus on, but nighttime long exposure shots need as much focus help
as possible.Maximum focus points
combined with large aperture settings will ensure a crisp image.As with any type of photography including
daytime long exposure, shoot in the RAW.This will give you unadulterated results that are easily manipulated if
needs be in post-production.

Maggie O'Briant recently graduated from Florida State University with an English Literature degree. She is currently a freelance writer and photographer. She currently lives in Hawaii with her husband and giant baby.